Exempting themselves from the rules

Hold the phone. The government broke their own rules for the “Economic Action Plan” Website, but it’s okay because then-Treasury Board president Vic Toews gave them an exemption, and hey, they followed most of the rules about the Common Look and Feel 2.0. (For those of you who don’t know, Common Look and Feel 2.0 is where the Conservatives came in and changed all government websites from red to blue). In fact, Toews claimed the exemption was okay, because they were going to change the rules at some point in the future. No, seriously. And the PMO says that most of the rules they broke are simply because of all the newfangled technology on the site, like the GPS locations of all those stimulus projects. Really! And The Canadian Press has uncovered emails with other instances where the government has been trying to skirt the rules when it comes to websites for their partisan purposes.

It looks like the government used the cabinet shuffle to quietly kill the cabinet committee on Afghanistan, seeing as our “combat mission” is coming to an end, and all of that.

Here’s a bit more on the increase in the size of Harper’s cabinet, and the Canadian ministry.

The Conservatives are freaking out because Liberal MP Dan McTeague told the Gulf News that Stephen Harper was responsible for the whole UAE fiasco. Because Stephen Harper never went abroad when he was in opposition to badmouth Canadian foreign policy before, ever.

There are concerns about the “toxic” working environment at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, of all places.

A New Brunswick man has been charged with uttering death threats against Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc.

Oh, look – Kory Teneycke is going to be back in charge at SunTV News, now that they have their CRTC application, because the official media arm of The Party couldn’t be without its head.

And here’s a story about the rise of political apps, after a BC Liberal leadership candidate launches one.

Up today – Some kind of push about the forestry industry from the government, apparently, as Harper and a number of MPs are out making announcements around the country.